Interactive advertising

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for dynamically sizing, structuring and operating advertisements that include a variety of content, including interaction prompts and other elements, which enable an engagement-based revenue generation model. According to one embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises storing advertising content, serving an XML file from an advertising server to an advertisement manager in order to control a player on a user computer, dynamically generating the advertisement through the player based on directions from the advertisement manager and the stored content, and tracking and reporting a user&#39;s engagement with the advertisement in order to determine compensation for the publisher.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority toU.S. application Ser. No. 11/781,830 entitled “Systems and Methods forInteraction Prompt Initiated Video Advertising,” filed on Jul. 23, 2007,which takes priority from provisional patent application Ser. No.60/820,077, filed Jul. 21, 2006, which are incorporated herein byreference. This application is related to co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/209,138, filed Sep. 11, 2008, titled“INTERACTION PROMPT FOR INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING”; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/209,107, filed Sep. 11, 2008, titled “DYNAMICCONFIGURATION OF AN ADVERTISEMENT”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/209,062, filed Sep. 11, 2008, titled “ENGAGEMENT-BASED COMPENSATIONFOR INTERACTIVE ADVERTISEMENT”.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to computer-based systems and methodsfor dynamically sizing, structuring and operating advertisements thatinclude a variety of content, including interaction prompts and otherelements, which enable an engagement-based revenue generation model.

STATEMENT AS TO THE RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSOREDRESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable.

REFERENCE TO A “SEQUENCE LISTING,” A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAMLISTING APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISK

Not Applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Traditional Internet or World Wide Web marketing/advertising operates ona “pay per impression” (PPI) basis. PPI is mostly used in associationwith banner advertising, where an advertiser pays a small amount to awebsite, advertising network, or other advertising reseller oraggregator (each a “publisher”) each time the advertiser's advertisementis loaded into a user's web browser and displayed to the user (the“impression”) by the publisher.

In addition to being paid by impression, publishers can also be paid ifa user clicks on the banner advertisement (a “click through” event or“pay-per-click”) and the user is directed to a website associated withthe advertisement. Upon direction to the website, the advertiser becomesobligated to pay the publisher of that banner advertisement some amountof money for the referral. Many websites are completely funded throughthe mass collection of small payments from many different advertisersfor both PPI and click through events.

In the same manner that advertising has changed over time, so too hasthe nature of the advertisements themselves. Many traditionaladvertisements have been static in nature, comprised of a picture andsome text related to the subject matter being advertised. More recentadvertisements have included multimedia object technologies (such asJAVA, SHOCKWAVE, FLASH, etc.) that utilize sound, video and/or animatedcontent to grab a user's attention. Video advertising (whether livemotion or animated) has frequently been used in association with othervideo content, such as playing a video commercial in association with avideo trailer for a movie. Sometimes the video advertisement isdisplayed before the video content (“pre roll”), in the middle of thevideo content or a series of videos (“mid roll”), or after the videocontent (“post roll”).

Whether the advertisement content is static or dynamic, the size of theadvertisement is often limited to a set of pre-defined sizes by thepublisher. For example, the standard wide and short, “full” banneradvertisement, as established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau(“IAB”), is 468×60 pixels in size. The IAB has also set guidelines forother advertisement units, such rectangular and pop-up advertisements(336×280, 300×250, 250×250, 240×400 and 180×150), banner and buttonadvertisements (728×90, 468×60, 234×60, 120×90, 120×60, 88×31, 80×15,120×240 and 125×125), and skyscraper advertisements (120×600, 160×600and 300×600). Rather than attempt to make all advertisement content fitevery single advertisement unit, an advertiser will frequently generateadvertisement content for use in just a couple of advertisement units,based on the sizes available, and force the publishers to fit thatcontent into the space they have available on their websites. Publishersneed a way to effectively select and arrange the multimedia contentwithin an advertisement (including new forms of content) to fit manydifferent advertisement units, as well as non-standard advertisementunits, while maintaining the quality of the advertisement for theadvertisers.

Likewise, while PPI advertising can initially be lucrative for apublisher, PPI has proven to be less effective over time because manyusers become overwhelmed with banner advertisements and begin to ignorethem. For advertisers, this means that while they continue to pay forimpressions, the value of such impressions is diluted due to the jadednature of the users. While pay-per-click advertising addresses thisissue for some direct-response oriented advertisers, many advertisersare just trying to build brand awareness rather than get users to theirsites, so they are not interested in paying on a pay-per-click basis.Advertisers therefore need another method of measuring the effectivenessof an advertisement. The challenge is to develop an advertising systemthat forces greater accountability on those publishing advertisements tousers and allows advertisers to more objectively measure theeffectiveness of their advertisements on their intended audience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary computer architecture for use with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a user computer, a network,websites, and other networked components that enable the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary web browser of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary player of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a number of dynamically sized advertisement units,each including an engagement property and other features of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an expanded advertisement from FIG. 5 within awebsite application;

FIG. 7 illustrates a mini store invitation and expanded mini storeadvertisement in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a teaser advertisement and an expanded advertisementthat uses readily navigatable widgets to deliver additional content inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates an expanded advertisement that enables sharing orsaving of some component of the advertisement or the entireadvertisement through operation of a widget in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates an invitation and an expanded advertisement with alocalization feature and a map widget in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 11 illustrates an expanded advertisement with dynamic components inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates an invitation and an expanded advertisement withdynamic components and localization features in accordance with thepresent invention; and

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of exemplary application servers of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Although the present invention may be described in terms of variousmethods, the present invention also relates to apparatus for performingthe operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in any form ofcomputer readable storage medium. Likewise, the methods described hereinare not inherently related to any particular computer or otherapparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs inaccordance with the teachings herein, or specialized apparatus forperforming the required method steps could be constructed.

FIG. 1 illustrates a general-purpose computer system that could beutilized to implement the systems and methods of the present invention.The general computer architecture 100 depicted can be used to implementa user's computer, application servers, websites, advertisementmanagers, advertising servers, and other elements of the presentinvention that are presented in further detail below. One embodiment ofarchitecture 100 comprises a system bus 102 for communicatinginformation, and a processor 104 coupled to the bus 102 for processinginformation. Architecture 100 further comprises a random access memory(RAM) or other dynamic storage device 106 (referred to herein as mainmemory), coupled to the bus 102 for storing information and instructionsto be executed by processor 104. Main memory 106 also may be used forstoring temporary variables or other intermediate information duringexecution of instructions by processor 104. Architecture 100 also mayinclude a read only memory (ROM) and/or other static storage devices 108coupled to bus 102 for storing static information and instructions usedby processor 104.

A data storage device 110 such as a magnetic disk or optical disc andits corresponding drive may also be coupled to the bus 102 for storinginformation and instructions. Architecture 100 can also be coupled to asecond I/O bus 120 via an I/O interface 122. A plurality of I/O devicesmay be coupled to I/O bus 120, including a display device 124, an inputdevice (e.g., a keyboard 126) and/or a cursor control device 128. Thecommunication device 130 allows for access to other computers (serversor clients) via a network. The communication device 130 may comprise amodem, a network interface card, a wireless network interface or otherwell known interface device, such as those used for coupling to anEthernet, token ring, or other type of network.

In general, the present invention relates to when a user accesses awebsite or other on-line location for displaying certain content on theuser's computer (whether that computer is in the form of a desktop,laptop or other type of computing device, such as a personal digitalassistance (PDA), a cellular phone, a smart phone or some other type ofdevice) and the user is presented with that content, as well asadditional content, such as one or more advertisements, through somesort of display. In one embodiment, an advertisement is first presentedto a user/viewer as an invitation or teaser that attracts the user tothe advertisement and encourages the user's engagement. If the userengages in an appropriate way with the invitation, the advertisementmight change in some fashion, such as enlarging or taking over theuser's display. The invitation advertisement includes one or moreengagement properties that encourage the user to engage or interact withthe advertisement content. Once the user so engages, an obligation bythe advertiser to pay the publisher may be triggered. Paymentobligations can vary based on the nature and extent of user engagement,as further described below.

The engagement properties include the user's movement of a cursor overthe advertisement content (a “mouse over”), the user's entry of one ormore keystrokes from a keyboard, clicking on or otherwise selecting theadvertisement content, allowing a countdown or timer to expire as aresult of a sustained mouse over the advertisement content, or someother form of user interaction with the advertisement. For example, whenusing a PDA or phone with a motion sensor or other motion detectioncapabilities, it might be possible to engage an advertisement by movingthe PDA or phone in a particular way to activate the sensor or othercapabilities. Similarly, a motion sensor or gesture recognition sensoror device associated with the user's computer could be trained torecognize certain user gestures to indicate engagement, such as a headnod, eye blink, hand motion, etc. Of course, many more methods ofengagement or interaction are possible, so the present invention is notlimited to just the manners specified herein.

To present these advertisements and their various features to the user,a file (such as an extensible mark-up language (XML) document/file) isserved to an advertisement manager in communication with the accessedwebsite/location and some form of content player within the user'scomputer. The advertisement manager would then take over control of theuser's advertisement experience through the utilization of informationcontained within the XML file. Advertisement servers and/or contentdelivery networks that store digital advertising content or media assets(including text, images, video, animations, hyperlinks, widgets, dynamicmicro-sites, programs, sound, slideshows, etc.) would then serve thecontent necessary to create the advertisements and their variousfeatures, as further described below, in response to the advertisementmanager and content player (or other application within the user'scomputer that is calling for the advertisement).

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a typical user computer, anetwork, and other networked servers, websites and systems necessary toimplement the present invention, according to one embodiment. Thebrowser enabled processor platform (i.e., the user's personal computeror laptop computer) 200 includes central processor unit (CPU) 202, anetwork/user interface 204, a web browser 206, which includes a player208 (such as a browser plug-in), and a memory 210. The user of theprocessor platform 200 may interact with a variety of networks 218,application servers 220, websites 222, a content delivery network (CDN)224 and advertisement servers 226.

The CPU 202 executes software code for the basic operation of theplatform 200. The executable code may include an Operating System,programs, device drivers and other software components. Device driversmay include I/O device drivers and network interface drivers. A devicedriver may interface to a keypad or to a USB port. A network interfacedriver may execute protocols for the Internet, or an intranet, Wide AreaNetwork (WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Personal Area Network (PAN),extranet, or other network.

The memory 210 may contain transactional memory and/or long-term storagememory facilities. The memory 210 may function as file or documentstorage, program storage, or working memory. A working memory 210 mayinclude, but is not limited to, static random access memory, dynamicrandom access memory, read-only memory, cache or flash memory. A workingmemory 210 may, for example, process temporally-based instructions, inpart, by temporarily storing code relating to an action of a device andpurging that code from the memory in close temporal proximity to thecompletion of the action. A long-term memory 210 may include, but is notlimited to, a hard drive, portable drive, portable disk (e.g., a CD-ROM,DVD, etc.), tape facility, or other storage facility. A hardware memoryfacility may store a fixed information set (e.g., software code)including, but not limited to, a file, program, application, sourcecode, object code, and the like.

The browser enabled processor platform 200 may also contain hardware forconverting analog signals to digital data, or for converting digitalsignals into analog signals. For example, it may be necessary to convertan analog audio or video source into digital data for storage orplayback. As another example, analog signals from a light sensor devicecould be converted into digital data for the storage of visualinformation for subsequent storage, playback, or transfer.

The browser enabled processor platform 200 may also include various I/Ointerfaces, such a hardware network interface, one or more displays,CD/DVDs, storage device, keypads/keyboards, printers, or other standardinterfaces. An example of a hardware network interface may be abroadband connection, a dial-up connection, wireless, or otherconnection. An example of a display may be a monitor, plasma screen, ora liquid crystal display. An example of other standard interfaces mayinclude, but is not limited to, a USB port, parallel port, serial port,microphone, or speaker.

Although the player 208 shown in FIG. 2 is configured as a browserplug-in, it could alternatively be any other form of software componentthat is adapted to be directly associated with a browser application206. The player 208 may be a downloadable software component ordelivered to the user of the browser enabled processor platform 200 inany number of other ways (e.g., delivered from a CD, DVD, memory stick,portable memory, FTP transfer, etc.). The networks 218 include theInternet and other possible networks, such as Wide Area Networks (WANs),Local Area Networks (LANs), or any other system for enabling two or moredevices to exchange information. Further, the networks 218 may includewireless networks.

The player 208 may be a proprietary player or any other player becausethe advertising capabilities described herein are independent of theplayer. If the player 208 is a plug-in, it may be a FLASH plug-in playeror some similar type of device. Other players are also envisioned andrequire other plug-in technology (e.g. WINDOWS MEDIA, REAL PLAYER orQUICKTIME players).

In a preferred embodiment, the player 208 is adapted to become directlyassociated or integrated with the browser application 206. Beforeplaying an advertisement, the user's browser enabled processor platform200 may be checked to see if it already has the proper player 208installed and if it does not, the user may be provided with an option toinstall one, or it may be installed automatically or in some otherfashion. The player 208 will be installed in such a way that itsfunctionalities (e.g., opening files from a variety of sources, playingvideo, music, etc.) are presented to a user through the network/userinterface 210, which operates in conjunction with the web browser 206.The player 208 may not be visible to user. This configuration allows auser to interact with websites 222 through the web browser 206 and theninteract with any of the player's 208 functionalities through the sameuser interface. The player 208 may also access the memory 210, such as ahard drive or other storage facility for the storage and retrieval offiles.

A user interested in interacting with content presented to the userthrough a website 222, depending on the particular arrangement betweenthe different systems on the networks, may interact with that contentdirectly on the website 222, or through the content delivery network224, or on the processor platform 200, if it has been downloaded to theprocessor platform 200. The content can also be presented to the user bystreaming the content from the websites 222, content delivery network224, or another processor platform (not shown) connected to the networks218.

Advertising servers 226 are web or other Internet-based applicationsresponsible for choosing an appropriate advertisement to be insertedinto a given calling application (as further described below). Theadvertising servers perform a number of different functions. Forexample, according to one embodiment, advertising servers 226 provideadvertising content to content delivery network 224, so thatadvertisements may be provided along with other content. Advertisingservers 226 may be part of content delivery network 224, or independentservers. The advertising servers also provide XML files to theadvertisement manager 225 within the player 208 that controls thedisplay and interaction by the user with the advertising content.According to one embodiment, advertising servers 226 collect advertisingcontent from various advertisers. Advertising servers 226 may alsoreceive information from the advertisement manager or from the contentdelivery network 224 pertaining to the users who view content throughthe content delivery network 224.

As noted above, the advertisement manager 225 controls the user'sinteraction with the advertising content played by the player 208. Theadvertisement manager 225 also collects and passes on information aboutthe user (such as targeting data) and the user's interaction withadvertisements (such as historical data) to the advertising servers 226and possibly other computers on the networks 218, such as a datawarehouse operated by the publisher or advertising company responsiblefor the advertisements. The user-related information may include theuser's Internet Protocol (IP) address, geographic location, nature ortheme of the website on which an advertisement is being displayed, thenature of the specific content viewed by the user, the user's webviewing history or patterns, as well as other psychographic data aboutthe user (which may be received from a number of different sources).Information may also be collected about the user's age, location,gender, income, education, ethnicity, product preferences and a varietyof other demographic characteristics that are useful in matching anadvertisement to a user. Information may also be collected about theuser's viewing experience such as the location of player 208, the genreof the content viewed, the type of content viewed (e.g., video,slideshow, widget), and the location of the player 208 within thebrowser.

Some of this information is collected and analyzed to deliveradvertisements to any users, such as targeting data, and some of thisinformation is collected and analyzed to present advertisements to userson future visits that may be more relevant to those users. Thisinformation can also be aggregated with similar information about otherusers and transferred to various advertisers, who will pay for thisinformation. According to one embodiment, the information is passed tothe advertising server 226 once a user begins to watch content on aplayer. If a website has provided the player, it may also provide codethat causes the user's information to be passed to the advertisingserver 226.

Although the advertising server 226 is typically a separate server onthe networks 218, it does not have to be a separate piece of hardwareand could be combined with other devices, such as the content deliverynetwork 224. If the advertising server function is incorporated into thecontent delivery network, a user interacting with content on the contentdelivery network 224 may use his/her own browser enabled processorplatform 200 equipped with a network browsing facility, such as thenetwork interface 204 and player 208, to connect to a content file byinteracting with a link or other such connection facility associatedwith a website 222 (or page thereof) as is described in much furtherdetail below.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of some of the functional aspects ofan exemplary web browser 206, according to one embodiment. The webbrowser 206 may host the player 208 (e.g., as an integrated browserplug-in) and may provide for the interconnection of the player 208 withexternal components such as network 218 and file storage withinnetworked storage, such as on the content delivery network 224. Thebrowser 206 may provide upload and download functions through its ownprocessor interface, or through the network interface 204, so as totransfer files to and from other processor platforms, provide userinterface network navigation tools, and provide other network userinterface tools. The web browser 206 may also provide for a webinterface to the user with functions that include navigation controlwithin web pages, bookmark management, favorite page storage and thelike.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary player, such as player208, according to one embodiment. The player 208 displays contentselected by the viewer or made available to the user through a website.The player 208 also provides a user interface that allows thedownloading, copying, viewing and interaction of content filespreviously stored on the content delivery network 224 or elsewhere, suchas the advertising servers 226. The downloading of or other interactionwith content files, as described herein, is enabled through the player'sweb interface to the browser network interface. The video viewing ornavigation interface of the player 208 may be a FLASH-based, or othersome other type of browser-based, player adapted to deliver content as apart of a website. The player 208 may also be a FLASH-based navigationinterface which allows users to select content to view. Content filesmay also be stored in the browser enabled processor platform 200 throughthe player's browser interface. To the degree that video content isinvolved, playback controls 400 can provide typical VCR/DVR-typecontrols, such as play, stop, pause, rewind, fast forward, copy, paste,cut, save, and other such control features.

A client may embed the player 208 directly into any type of interactiveelectronic document using Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). When theplayer 208 requests content from the content delivery network 224, orthe advertising servers 226, that content is then be made available tothe player 208 for display and interaction. The application servers 220monitor traffic to and from the content delivery network 224, takeaction when necessary, such as to delete content, and generate reportingdata for advertisers.

The browser 206 may be a software application for navigating one or morenetworks 218, such as the Internet, intranet, extranet, a privatenetwork, and or content in file systems. The browser 206 also enables auser to display and interact with text, images, videos, audio and othercontent accessible through the networks 218. Such content may containhyperlinks to navigate to other web pages at the same or differentwebsites 222. Web browser 206 may allow a user to navigate and accessinformation provided on many web pages at many websites 222 bytraversing these links. Web browser 206 may also provide other featuressuch as storing the address for a favorite website utilizing thebrowser's Bookmark Manager. Examples of bookmarked websites 222 may behyperlinks to other personal sites, e-commerce sites, government sites,or educational sites. Another feature of web browser 206 may be caching,where recently visited websites 222 are transferred through theprocessor interface and stored in processor memory to decrease retrievaltime for subsequent calls for the website 222. Examples of web browser206 include the MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER, MOZILLA FIREFOX, OPERA andAPPLE SAFARI browsers. Although browser 206 may typically be used toaccess the World Wide Web, it may also be used to access informationprovided by web servers in private networks or content in file systems.

Web browser 206 may communicate with web servers through the networkinterface primarily using Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to fetchweb pages. HTTP may allow a web browser 206 to upload information acrossthe network interface to web servers as well as download web pages fromthem. Web pages are located by means of a Uniform Resource Locator(URL), which may be treated as an address, beginning with http: for HTTPaccess. Many browsers 206 may support a variety of other URL types andtheir corresponding protocols. Examples of other URL types may be ftp:for File Transfer Protocol (FTP), rtsp: for Real-Time Streaming Protocol(RTSP), and https: for HTTPS (an SSL encrypted version of HTTP). Thefile format for a web page may be HTML. Browser 206 may also supportformats in addition to HTML. Examples of other support formats may beJPEG, PNG and GIF image formats, and can be extended to support morethrough the use of browser plug-ins. An example of a browser plug-in maybe MACROMEDIA'S FLASH or APPLE'S QUICKTIME applications. The combinationof HTTP and URL protocol specification may allow web pages to haveembedded images, animations, video, sound, and streaming media into thewebpage, or make them accessible through the web page.

The player 208 also includes an advertising region 402 that may or maynot contain an advertisement. For example, the advertisement manager 225may cause an image of a cola bottle to be displayed within a displaywindow corresponding to a website 222. The cola bottle could be limitedto being displayed within the advertising region 402, but need not be soconstrained. The cola bottle could come out of the advertising message,such as an invitation or teaser advertisement, and move around thescreen in some fashion, or when the website was first displayed, thecola bottle could be made to travel around different parts of the windowor the display area of the user's computer, with the intent of capturingthe user's attention and drawing them to interact with advertisingmessages within the advertising region 402 or elsewhere. Theseadvertising messages may be self-activating or trigged by a user'sinteraction with some form of an interaction prompt within a window orthe advertising region 402.

Accordingly to one embodiment, the invitation or teaser advertisementcould be associated with a single advertiser or multiple advertisers.For example, the invitation could represent an advertisement for asingle good or service from a single advertiser, or multiple goods orservices from that advertiser. Likewise, multiple different advertiserscould be represented by a single invitation space. Each good or servicecould be presented in a different way. For example, a rectangular-shapedinvitation space could be broken up into four quadrants, with adifferent good or service presented in each quadrant of the space.Alternatively, the different advertisements could operate like a slideshow, with one advertisement being shown in the invitation space for anumber of seconds before being replaced by another advertisement.

This might make it possible for a publisher to fully exploit anadvertising opportunity in a new way. For example, if a user within aparticular demographic, such as 18-34 year old males, was not interestedin the one good or service presented in an invitation with a singleadvertisement, the opportunity to engage that user could be lost.However, if the same user were presented with a number of differentadvertisements at the same time or in sequence, the user might beinterested in one of the advertised goods/services and choose to engagewith that advertisement. Once the user has engaged with thatadvertisement, if the user has a good experience, the user might beinclined to engage with some of the other advertisements provided in thesame invitation.

According to one embodiment, upon the user's interaction with theinteraction prompt, a further advertising message is presented. Forexample, if the cola bottle was the interaction prompt, once the userclicked on the cola bottle, the invitation or teaser advertisement wouldtransform into a full advertisement associated with the cola, eitherwithin the advertising region, or within all or some other part of thewindow. Once the user has experienced the full advertisement, the userwould be able to close the full advertisement, as illustrated in FIG. 5below, and return to the website or page or other area from which theystarted. When they do return to this area, the invitation they firstviewed could be changed to represent some other advertised good orservice, rather than continue to advertise the good/service with whichthey have already engaged.

As noted above, the cola bottle is just one example of an interactionprompt and the invention herein is hardly limited to just that example.Further interaction prompts include text (i.e., “Click Here to See Ad”),some other graphic element (aside from the bottle), a playback control400, a keyboard prompt, voice activation, etc. The types of interactioncan vary greatly and could be different for different users depending ontheir psychographic data, demographic characteristics, or other factors,such as prior interactions with interaction prompts (i.e., if the userhas only interacted with a particular type of interaction prompt in thepast, the same type of interaction prompt may continue to be used forthat user, versus switching to a different type).

Upon the user's engagement with the interaction prompt, a number ofother different actions could occur in addition to presenting the userwith a full advertisement. If the user was watching a video or someother form of content within the window at the time of the interaction,the viewing or navigation interface could be placed in a suspended state(i.e., paused). In one embodiment, such pause may be for the duration ofthe advertising message, until a user action occurs, or for some otherduration. Of course, not all users will necessarily appreciate havingthe content they are viewing disrupted by an advertisement that they mayhave inadvertently engaged with by doing something as innocuous asmoving their mouse. In one embodiment, the interaction prompt providesthe user with a warning or counter to let the user know that what theyare doing within the window is causing an advertisement to engage andthat something will happen shortly if they do not do something to changethe situation.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, which shows a number ofdifferently sized advertisement units (invitations or teasers) 500comprised of text 502, images 504 and elements 506, an interactionprompt 508 (one of a possible plurality of engagement properties) islocated at the top right corner of each advertisement unit. Theinteraction prompt is comprised of a graphic element 510, comprised of aturned corner, and an engagement warning or indicator 512, comprised ofa change symbol as the warning device. The turned corner of the graphicelement 510 makes the advertisement look as though it is made of paperand that the upper right hand corner has been bent forward as if to turnthe page. The turned corner gives the user the visual image that thereis something else behind the advertisement that could be reached byinteracting with the upper right hand corner.

The engagement warning and/or change symbol 512 functions to indicate toa user that has with the graphic element that continued engagement willcause an action by the advertisement to occur. As illustrated in FIG. 5,the engagement warning 512 is a “plus” sign that warns or indicates tothe user that there is something more associated with the advertisement.For example, the plus sign can warn the user that engaging with theadvertisement unit 500 could cause the action to occur, such asadvertisement changing in some way, i.e., expanding, increasing orgrowing. Other stylized symbols could be used in place of a standardplus sign to indicate expansion, such as two intersecting curves thatappear to form a plus sign, or many other variations that indicateexpansion, growth or that something more might occur if the userinteracts with the symbol. An expansion is just one action that canoccur that the engagement warning or change symbol can indicate to auser. For example, as further discussed below, the change symbol 512might be a minus sign to warn the user of a contraction if the symbolwas engaged, or a counter to warn the user of the passage of time. Manyother possible ways to warn the user of actions are possible.

Thus, the user is presented with a number of visual clues thatengagement with the interaction prompt 508 or the advertisement unit 500might cause something to happen. As noted above, rather than simplyhaving the advertisement units become active (i.e., change, start toplay video or music, take over the window in which they are displayed,expand in size in some way, etc.) when the user moves the mouse over theinteraction prompt 508 or over the advertisement unit 500, theinteraction prompt could be used to provide the user with a warning ornotice of engagement. For example, the change symbol 512 could changefrom a “plus” sign to a number, such as the number “3”, when either theengagement prompt 508 or the advertisement unit 500 was moused over bythe user. If the user continued to hold the cursor over the prompt 508or unit 500 for more than a predetermined period of time, such as onesecond, the number “3” might change to the number “2”. If the usercontinued to hold the mouse over the prompt 508 or unit 500 as thecountdown continued, the advertisement would become fully active, suchas by pausing the other content being viewed and expanding to take overmore visual space on the user's computer display.

While the counter method described above is particularly intuitive, thesystems and methods of the present invention are not limited to just acounter technique. Many other forms of user engagement warning ornotices could be utilized. One significant value of the engagementwarning is that it gives users an opportunity (a period of time) todecide whether they want to engage with the advertisement without anysignificant change occurring in the meantime. Many prior art techniquescause an immediate change, such as expanding the advertisement, stoppinga video from playing, redirecting the user to a different website. Manyusers find such techniques to be bothersome and annoying. The engagementwarning of the present invention avoids this problem.

FIG. 6 illustrates an expanded advertisement 600 within a websiteapplication 602 according to one embodiment. FIG. 5 provides anadvertisement 300 for a HONDA CIVIC automobile. If the user engages withone of the advertisement units 300, the advertisement 300 might expandinto the advertisement 600, as illustrated in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, theadvertisement 600 for the automobile has expanded to cover most of thecontent otherwise normally available on the user's website application602, in this case a webpage within FACEBOOK. The change symbol 512 inFIG. 6 has changed to a “minus” sign to indicate that the advertisementis fully expanded and that the advertisement can be reduced to itsoriginal size by interacting with the change symbol 512 (i.e., clickingon the “minus” sign).

The expanded advertisement shares other features, in addition to theinteraction prompt 508, such as elements 506. As an aside, although notshown in the figures, the visual transition that occurs between anadvertisement unit and an expanded, active or full advertisement givesthe developer of the advertisement an opportunity to identify itself.After a countdown passes or some other action has occurred that causesan advertisement to transition, the advertisement developer couldbriefly display its logo, name or some other identifier so that a userwould be able to identify the entity that created the advertisement.

Returning to FIGS. 5 and 6, elements 506 enable the advertisement units500 or expanded advertisements 600 to have a number of additionalfunctions and to extend or otherwise expand the user's experience. Asillustrated in FIG. 5, one element 506 instructs the user to “Roll-over”or “Roll-over to play” (some units 500 and advertisements 600 alsoinclude the universal “play” button to illustrate this feature toEnglish and non-English readers). If a user rolled-over this element506, then the image 504 could be transformed from just an image intovideo, or the unit 500 could be expanded to a larger advertisement 600.Another element 506 instructs the user “Next” and includes an “arrow”button to further illustrate this feature. Selecting the Next elementwould cause the advertisement 500 to be replaced by an entirely new (the“next”) advertisement that had already been cued up and was ready toplay in the event the next element was selected. Thus, if a user likedone advertisement, the user might be interested in engaging withadditional advertisements from either the same advertiser, or related tothe same product, or from the same publisher, etc. As previouslymentioned, the next advertisement could also be for a completelydifferent advertiser. After the “next” advertisement, there could bemore next advertisements cued up and ready to become active, and on andon until all of the advertisements that could be shown were shown tothat user.

Another element 506 might allow a user to watch a different videoassociated with the unit 500, or do other things, such as turn sound onor off, bookmark or save the advertisement, provide feedback, or controlother aspects of the user's experience. For example, in FIG. 6, elements506 operate as a share tool that enables the user to share theadvertisement with a friend by opening an email application that can beused to email the advertisement to anyone. The share tool or elements506 could also be used to enable the user to visit the advertiser'swebsite (i.e., HONDA.COM). The number of functions that could bedeveloped by the share tool of elements 506 to expand or extend theuser's experience is limitless, but a few related or additional examplesare provided below with respect to FIGS. 7 to 12.

FIG. 7 illustrates an invitation advertisement 700 for a phone companymini store that includes some kind of advertisement content 702, a title704 with instructions on how to interact with the advertisement 700, andother engagement devices 706. When a user engages with the advertisement700, it expands into advertisement 710 that provides a mini store whereusers can browse through numerous different products, in this case anumber of phones, see the pricing for the offered products, and purchaseor learn more about the products. For example, selecting the “LearnMore” button 712 under Phone 2 might take a user to another website withmore information about Phone 2, such as its features, or might take theuser to an on-line purchasing page where Phone 2 can be purchased.Alternatively, if a user was interested in the advertiser (the phonecompany), but hesitant to buy from the advertisement, the user couldselect the “Visit site” button 714 and go directly to the phonecompany's website.

FIG. 8 illustrates an invitation advertisement 800 for Brand X, whichincludes a title 802, some form of teaser content 804 to interest theuser, and other engagement content 806, in this case the provocativephrase “What in the world?” When the user engages with the advertisement800, it expands into advertisement 810 that includes a videoadvertisement 812 and a number of easily navigated widget-based tabs 814to 820. Advertisement 800 is meant to provide the user with the abilityto view multiple different pieces of content while within a singleadvertisement 810. While one video or other form of advertisementcontent was being displayed, in this case Clip 2 of widget tab 816, thecorresponding tab is raised above the other tabs so the user knows whichone is playing. To select different content, the user would mouse overeither widget tabs 814 818 or 820 and select one of those tabs, orinteract with them in some other appropriate manner. This advertisementformats allows the advertiser to present significantly more content to auser, without requiring the user to exit the webpage or website theywere at when they engaged the invitation advertisement.

FIG. 9 illustrates an advertisement 900 that enables the user to sharewith, or push the advertisement 900 to other people. When the userselects the “Share ad” button 902, at any time, a widget 904 will appearin front of the advertisement content 906 (which may be paused orsuspended as a result). The widget 904 allows the user to email theadvertisement 900 (including any video, widgets, engagement features andother content) to another person (through the user's default emailapplication) or embed the advertisement 900 in a blog, social networkingwebsite or other host environment, such as the MYSPACE website, FACEBOOKwebsite, etc. To simply the process of emailing the advertisement 900,the widget 904 will prepare the advertisement 900 as an attachment to anemail, embed it within the body of an email message, or provide a linkto the advertisement that can be inserted into an email message. Tosimplify the process of embedding the advertisement 900 in any of alarge number of other environments, the widget 904 will prepare theadvertisement 900 based on the host environment selected by the userfrom a scrollable list. When a host environment is selected, the userwill either be presented with the code or other tools needed to insertthe advertisement 900 into the desired host environment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an advertisement 1000 that includes a localizationtool that enables the publisher to push local experiences into theadvertisement. The localization tool utilizes a service that capturesthe Internet Protocol (IP) address for the user and traces that to a zipcode that corresponds to the user's physical location. The user can thenbe presented with information relevant to the advertisement that has alocal connection to the user. For example, advertisement 1000 plays avideo 1002 for the 2009 SUBARU FORESTER automobile and invites users tofind their local dealer by selecting the “FIND A SUBARU” button 1004.When the user selects button 1004, a map widget 1006 opens that showsthe user where the nearest dealer is to the user based on the zip codetraced by the localization service. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the useris physically located in the Reno/Sparks area of Nevada, and a dealer,as indicated by the icon 1008, is located near highway 395 just south ofthe highway 395/highway 80 interchange. Since IP addresses do not alwaystrace to the exact location of the user, the map widget 1006 includes azip code entry section 1010 so the user can manually enter a zip codeand a zoom feature 1012, so the exact location of the dealership can belocated.

FIG. 11 illustrates one example of a dynamic content advertisement 1100.The expanded advertisement 1100 includes a title section 1102, someadvertising text 1104, four video areas (video1 1106, video2 1108,video3 1110 and video4 1112), and a blog text section 1114. The videoareas depict four different video scenes, each of which might be drivenfrom a live video feed, such as streaming video. The blog section 1114includes text that is being fed into the advertisement 1100 through anRSS feed. Any other frequently updated content could also be fed intothe section 1114, such as pod casts, news headline, stock quotes, etc.In FIG. 11, a series of blog entries are listed in section 1114.Although one is shown, a user could access the other blog entries bymoving arrow keys on their keyboard, clicking a selection button whilethey are moving the mouse over the section 1114, etc.

FIG. 12 illustrates another example of a dynamic content advertisement.In FIG. 12, invitation advertisement 1300 is an advertisement for theNational Basketball Association (NBA) finals. It illustrates two images:image1 1202 includes a picture of one basketball player (or a logo orsimilar representation) from one team; and image2 1204 includes thepicture of a different player, logo, representation, etc. from adifferent team. Illustrating the images of different basketball playersfrom different teams is meant to express the competition between theopposing teams. If the user engages with the invitation 1200, the fulladvertisement 1206 opens and displays additional content, which mightinclude the images (1208 and 1210) of more players, video footage of theteams playing, etc., and includes the names of the teams that will beplaying, what time they will play, and what broadcaster is carrying thegame. Combining this RSS feed data with a localization tool or servicewould enable the playing time to be adjusted for the user's actual timezone. Additional dynamic data, such as other games being played, etc.could also be displayed, such as in area.

In addition to the dynamic advertising elements discussed above, manyother dynamic elements could be utilized in an advertisement, such as awidget, a real-time or downloadable application, a dynamic mincro-site(i.e., a mini-site or weblet that is comprised of a web page or clusterof pages), a slide show, etc. The content illustrated also need not bestatic, whether in the original or expanded form. Hence, the images ortext or other elements within an advertisement unit could be changed onsome periodic basis, such as after a period of time, after the user'scursor has spent so much time over the element in question, after theuser has engaged with the advertisement in some other way, or in manyother ways, as further noted below. Further, as noted with respect tothe share feature of FIG. 9, the advertisements or the elements of theadvertisement can be capable of independence from the website 222 orother environment in which they first displayed. For example, if theadvertisement was created as a stand-alone application or as amicro-site, versus being delivered by the browser, it could be removed(i.e., downloaded) from the website on which it appears and used on itsown in many other environments, e.g., dragged and dropped onto a desktopor other storage area, emailed or shared with others, embedded in otherelectronic documents, etc.

As noted above, some or all of the components of the advertisement,versus the advertisement as a whole, could also have independence. Forexample, a user may be able to grab a component of the advertisement,such as a widget, an application, a slide show, etc., and drop it ontotheir desktop or some other location, or otherwise downloaded in someform. Preferably, the component would include some indicator of theadvertiser or the good/service being advertised. A video, an animation,music, etc., that could be removed from the advertisement and used inother ways could significantly enhance the value of the advertisement tothe advertiser. Once removed from the advertisement, the component couldexpress additional independence and could be re-sizeable and changeablein other ways.

Having described some of the various types of advertisements that couldbe generated, the components and content of such advertisements, andsome of their many features, it is now necessary to describe the mannerin which advertisements are generated, such as in the context of thearchitecture illustrated in FIG. 2. To generate an advertisement in awebpage or flash player, for example, a request must be made for theadvertisement to be inserted in the webpage or player, such as player208. The application making the request or call is referred to herein asthe calling application. The calling application could come in manydifferent forms: (1) a standard website or web application that is basedon HTML, JAVASCRIPT or CSS code; (2) a rich-media application deliveredvia a web-based plug-in, such as a ADOBE FLASH plug-in; (3) a rich-mediacomponent of a web application, such as a FLASH or QUICKTIME-based videoplayer, embedded game or widget; (4) a mobile application, such as anIPHONE or mobile JAVA application; or (5) any other Internet connectedapplication.

In one embodiment, the calling application makes a request or call tothe advertisement manager 225 to embed an advertisement in the webpageor player via an application programming interface (API) provided by theadvertisement manager 225. The advertisement manager 225 is a collectionof code that manages the user's advertising experience, includingloading the XML file, referred to above, from the advertising servers226, and rendering the advertisement as part of the calling application(in this case player 208). Although the advertisement manager 225 isshown in FIG. 2 as part of the player 208, the advertisement manager 225is a code library that could reside in any of a number of places withinthe user's computer 200 or elsewhere that is accessible to the user'scomputer 200. For example, the advertisement manager 225 could be aFLASH file loaded into the player 208 that is application specific(e.g., .swf).

The API of the advertisement manager 225 allows the calling applicationto pass on targeting data, such as the user's age and gender, andspecifics on what kind of advertisement it wants, such as the availablesize or particular advertisement types. The code and structure of theAPI varies depending on the type of calling application. For example,the API for a video player may be totally different than the API for aweb application, which may be totally different than the API for anIPHONE application. The API can also provide extra functionality, suchas instructions regarding how an advertisement should be shown,instructions for hiding an advertisement, or a callback for informingthe calling application that an advertisement has been shown or is beingshown.

Once a request for an advertisement has been made to the advertisementmanager 225 from the calling application, the advertisement manager 225then operates as an advertisement requester and in turn makes a requestto the Advertising Server(s) 226 to get a particular advertisement basedon the application request and the targeting data and, in the process,pass along any data about the user, the kinds of advertisements that areallowed, the available size and other data. The advertising server 226then picks an advertisement from a set of available advertisements basedon the incoming data and other internal data, such as whichadvertisements perform best, which advertisements make the most money,how many of each advertisement it is supposed to deliver, etc. Once theadvertising server 226 has selected an advertisement to send to thecalling application, the advertising server 226 will return a file tothe advertisement manager 225 to the calling application. This fileincludes advertising metadata corresponding to the selectedadvertisement and allows the advertisement manager 225 to become anadvertisement configuror as further described below. The form of thefile varies depending on the type of calling application or the type ofthe advertisement, but is most often an XML file and is referred toherein accordingly.

The advertising metadata defines the various elements (including text,image, video or other rich-media elements) to be used in a particularadvertisement. The advertising metadata also describes to theadvertisement configuror of the advertisement manager 225 how thoseelements should be displayed, what engagement data for thatadvertisement should be collected and where it should be sent, and otherdata necessary to render and track the advertisement. Although theadvertising metadata describes how elements should be displayed, it doesnot control how the elements will actually be displayed on the user'scomputer 200, which is managed by the advertisement manager 225. Forexample, to display an advertisement on a user's computer 200 comprisedof a video and a headline of text, the advertisement manager (typicallyJavaScript and/or ActionScript) running on the user's computer(“client-side code”), would read the XML file (including the advertisingmetadata) to determine what content to use (i.e., the video andheadline), download that content from the advertisement servers or thecontent delivery network, and determine where to put the video and theheadline (and how big to make them) based on the space (i.e., size andshape) available for the advertisement.

Upon receipt of the XML file, the advertisement manager 225 parses theadvertising metadata and loads any advertising media assets referencedin the advertising metadata from an advertising media server(advertising servers 226). Advertising media assets are media elements(media files) used in an advertisement, such as images, videos, flashgames, etc. The advertising media server is a web application that iscapable of delivering the advertising media assets, which are referencedby the advertising metadata by their retrieval location (such as a URL)within the advertising media server. The advertising media server canreside on any web server, collection of web servers, or a network (suchas the content delivery network 224), and may or may not be on the samephysical server as the advertising servers 226.

Once the advertising media assets have been loaded, the correspondingadvertisement can be displayed to the user. How and when theadvertisement manager 225 loads the advertising media assets anddisplays the advertisement varies based on the advertisement type, thecalling application, the available space, and other factors. Forexample, if the available space is very small, the advertisement managermay choose not to display all of the advertising media assets for theadvertisement or to reduce the font size, or if the calling applicationis a video player, the advertisement manager may choose not to displaythe advertisement until a certain amount of the video has been played.Likewise, based on the time of day, or the passed on data regarding theuser's age, gender, location, etc., the advertising media assets mightbe varied.

As a result, the advertisement unit is not limited to the standardformats specified by the IAB, but rather can be dynamically sized andstructured to work in any space provided. As shown in FIG. 5, the text302, images 304, elements 306, and interaction prompt 308 of theadvertisement unit 300 can be sized, arranged, altered, left out, oradded to as needed to form an advertisement for any situation. Thus, anadvertisement could be created for any standard sized advertisement unitas well as any non-standard size unit by having the advertising manager225 decide what advertising media assets best fit within the spaceprovided for the advertisement and then arrange those assetsaccordingly.

If there is very little space for the advertisement, then it may only becomprised of a line of text 302 (or just a word) and an interactionprompt 308 (which may be the word itself or some other visible orinvisible element). For example, a crown unit (i.e., an advertisementwhich sits on top of other content) could be dynamically generated in avery constrained space that may only allow for a single word or line oftext in a small font or a single image or graphic. With a little morespace, it might be possible to add an image 304 or larger image. An evenlarger space could allow for a larger version of the same image 304, thetext 302 in a bigger font, additional text, various elements, a videobox, etc. Any of the advertising media assets of the advertisement unitcould be dynamically refreshed once the advertisement was generated, orselected in some sort of dynamic fashion so that different users seeingthe same advertisement at the same time might get differentcontent/assets, or even the same user seeing an advertisement for thesame thing might get different content/assets each time.

As noted above, any component of the advertisement specified by the XMLfile could also be dynamic. For example, any advertising media assetcould be supported by an RSS feed, thereby enabling that asset to befrequently updated or modified. The advertisement manager 225 may alsomake subsequent (even frequent) requests to additional servers fordynamic advertising data, to replace content, or to implement extrafunctionality. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, if anadvertisement is for a television show or game, the advertisementmanager 225 may make a request to a server for the show's/game's airtime in the user's time zone, which could then be displayed with theadvertisement. Extra functionality, such as the ability to send anadvertisement to a friend via email, might be accomplished by having theadvertisement manager 225 contact an email server for processing theemail, as illustrated in FIG. 9.

These various advertisements can also be constructed from reusablestructural and/or advertising media asset components. For example, ananimation used in a ticker advertisement (an advertisement shown in aticker, i.e., a small area that overlays or obstructs content) for oneadvertiser could be used by the same advertiser in a different type ofadvertisement, or even a different advertiser for a differentproduct/service. This can be accomplished by having multiple XML filesspecify the same media asset(s). These same media assets would then bedownloaded from the advertising media server (i.e., content deliverynetwork 224) for use in the different advertisements. Other types ofadvertisements that can be specified to the advertisement manager by theXML file include, without limitation:

-   -   a pre roll advertisement (i.e., an advertisement shown to the        user before showing the content the user requested);    -   a post roll advertisement (i.e., an advertisement shown after        the user completes viewing the desired content.);    -   a mid roll advertisement (i.e., an advertisement shown in the        middle of the desired content.); and    -   a menu advertisement (i.e., an advertisement show in an        interface inside the video player where the user is selecting        additional content or accessing additional functionality like        emailing or embedding the player).

In addition to playing or helping to facilitate the presentation orplaying of an advertisement, the advertisement manager 225 serves otherpurposes. The advertisement manager 225 can be used to track userevents, such as each instance where the user pauses or plays thecontent, or when the content begins and ends. Thus, the advertisementmanager 225 continues to control the advertising experience by managingthe advertisement, running any animations or videos, checking for userinteractions, and updating the advertisement as needed. Theadvertisement manager may also track certain events and send data onwhen or how the event occurred and send that information to anadvertising data collection server for reporting or billing, as furtherdescribed below.

The combination of the player 208 and appropriate coding with theadvertisement servers 226, advertisement manager 225, and contentdelivery network 224 allows interactive advertisements to be provided toany websites that hosts a player 208 of any form. The present method andsystem also allows for advertisement to be structured, shaped andpositioned in any manner that will invite a user to watch anadvertiser's message.

The remaining major component of FIG. 2 yet to be described in anydetail is the application servers 220. FIG. 13 depicts a block diagramof an exemplary application server(s) 220, according to one embodiment.The application server(s) 220 may provide central control of certainsystem platform functions such as providing content delivery network 224control, providing a central website for the publisher's home page,providing account management (including reporting server functions andcollecting and storing data about users), providing a source ofexecutable downloads for the player 208 browser plug-ins, providingautomatic updates to player 208, providing logging of data flow andusage, providing authorization for use of the components of the system(such as uploading content to the content delivery network 224),providing other controls to facilitate the manipulation and viewing ofcontent files, and providing the advertising data collection server.This latter server is a web application which collects engagement data.When a user interacts with a particular advertisement, the advertisementmanager 225 notifies the advertising data collection server of theengagement, which in turns stores the data for future use. Data from theadvertising data collection server can then be used to provide reportsand to determine how much the advertiser should pay if the advertiser ispaying on an engagement basis.

As noted in the Background of the Invention section, in the past,advertisers have been obligated to pay publishers for each advertisementprimarily based on pay-per-impression (PPI) or pay-per-click (PPC)compensation models, even in the absence of any evidence that a user haspaid any attention to the advertisements in question. Only payingpublishers when a click through occurs (the other primary form ofcompensation), however, goes too far the other way in that it is notalways reasonable or appropriate to expect a user to have to leave thewebsite they are viewing to go to another website corresponding to theadvertisement. The present invention provides an alternative to PPI andPPC compensation models without requiring click through as acompensation alternative. The present invention couples theengagement-based advertisement described above with a new compensationmodel that forces greater accountability on publishers and enablesadvertisers to more objectively measure the effectiveness of theiradvertisements.

In one embodiment, when a user engages or interacts with the displayedadvertisement, such as by moving the cursor over the advertisement unit500 or the interaction prompt 508 (or engaging in one of the othermanners described above), the advertiser is assured that the user hasseen the advertisement and paid some attention to it. Any act ofengagement, and the level of such engagement (i.e., the “degree ofengagement”), by a user can then be tracked and reported to determineappropriate compensation for a publisher. If the user's engagement ismore than just passing, such as resulting in the advertisement becomingactive, then the advertiser would be provided with an even higher levelof assurance and the publisher might be paid an even higher amount ofmoney because of the increased degree of engagement. The degree ofengagement could also include different types of engagement and/or theamount of time spent by the user engaging the advertisement. Forexample, the passage of a mouse over the interaction prompt 508 might bepaid at the lowest rate, while allowing the countdown to get to “2” or“1”, but short of letting the advertisement become active, could be paidat a higher rate. Allowing the advertisement to become active wouldgenerate an even higher rate. A user's emailing or otherwise sharing ofan advertisement could result in different revenue, including theresulting stream of additional viewers to whom the advertisement wassent or shared with, which could be tracked by the advertisement. Aclick through by the user to the advertiser's website might becompensated even higher. Likewise, a single user that uses the “nextadvertisement” feature to view multiple advertisements from the sameadvertiser could be priced at a different rate.

In an embodiment, rather than pay on a per user basis, engagements formultiple users over some period of time could be aggregated, with feesbeing based on aggregation totals or even percentages, e.g., 10,000users moused over without further engagement, 5,000 partially counteddown through the interaction prompt, 1,000 allowed the advertisement tobecome active, 500 clicked through, etc. Thus, many different means oftracking and reporting user engagement is possible and many differentcompensation schemes accordingly can result.

This engagement-based compensation model is more trustworthy than payper impression-based models because user intent and interest in theadvertisement is not inferred or assumed based on the mere display of anad, but rather from true engagement with the advertisement—engagementbeing defined herein as interaction that falls short of a click-through.Further enhancements to the model include certain technological measuresthat avoid or account for “engagement” fraud that could be caused bymanual or automated methods that appear to indicate engagement when noactual engagement by a user has occurred.

Potentially fraudulent activity includes engagements from knownsuspicious IP addresses or browser user agents, unusual engagementlevels from particular users, unusual ratios of engagement types,unusual amounts of time between engagement types, etc. For example, if auser constantly starts, stops and restarts a video, or starts a videoand immediately stops the video, that activity may be fraudulent.Likewise, if a particular IP address shows lots of mouse overs, but novideo views, or 100% video views, fraud could also be suspected. Whenfraudulent activity is detected or suspected, the advertisement manager225 could disable the advertisement so no further engagement ispossible. Alternatively, if fraudulent engagement with an advertiser'sadvertisement is detected, any engagement accounting associated withthat advertisement could be adjusted by the amount of fraud involved.

Likewise, the model could be further enhanced through the application ofan advanced advertising marketplace that allows advertisers to bid onthe amounts to be paid per engagement, measured engagement, differenttype of engagement, etc., in an auction environment. This type ofadvanced marketplace, when combined with the engagement model of thepresent invention, would allow advertisers to reach certain targeteddemographics or other targeted criteria (such as noted above) with muchgreater levels of assurance and reliability than present models makepossible. Under this model, advertisers are only obligated to pay when auser interacts with the displayed advertisement—not upon the meredisplay of the advertisement alone.

While the present invention has been illustrated and described herein interms of a preferred embodiment and several alternatives associated withsystems and methods for dynamic and engagement-based advertising andcompensation, it is to be understood that the various components of thecombination and the combination itself can have a multitude ofadditional uses and applications. Accordingly, the invention should notbe limited to just the particular descriptions and various drawingfigures contained in this specification that merely illustrate one ormore preferred embodiments and applications of the principles of theinvention.

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying an interactiveadvertisement for presentation to a user of a computer, comprising:displaying an invitation with a processor of the computer on a displayof the computer, the invitation including a first set of media assetsfrom a plurality of media assets and a first set of engagement elementsfrom a plurality of engagement elements that encourage the user tointeract with the invitation; determining with the processor whether theuser has performed a first interaction with the invitation; displayingan engagement warning with the processor in response to the firstinteraction with the invitation, the engagement warning indicating thatan action by the user within a period of time will prevent deployment ofan expanded message including a second set of media assets from theplurality of media assets and a second set of engagement elements fromthe plurality of engagement elements that encourage the user to interactwith the expanded message; closing the engagement warning with theprocessor and not displaying the expanded message if the user performsthe action within the period of time; replacing the invitation with theprocessor with the expanded message if the user does not perform theaction within the period of time; and collecting with the processorengagement information generated as a result of interaction by the userwith the interactive advertisement.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe plurality of media assets include a widget.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the plurality of media assets include a micro-site.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media assets includes aplurality of different advertisements presented to the user in aslideshow format.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofmedia assets includes a plurality of different advertisements presentedto the user at one time.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first setof media assets includes a plurality of different advertisements thatare to be separately presented to the user, and wherein the first set ofengagement elements includes a next advertisement tool that enables theuser to move through the plurality of different advertisements.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the engagement elements include a share toolthat enables the user to send the interactive advertisement to adifferent computer.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the share toolformats the interactive advertisement so the interactive advertisementwill operate properly on the different computer.
 9. The method of claim1, wherein the plurality of engagement elements include a plurality ofwidgets that can be navigated by the user to access the plurality of themedia assets.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofengagement elements include a share tool that enables the user to sendone or more of the media assets or one or more of the engagementelements to a different computer.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinthe plurality of media assets include a widget and the share toolformats the widget to be embedded in the different computer.
 12. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the plurality of media assets include awidget and the share tool formats the widget as an attachment to anemail message.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality ofmedia assets include a widget and the share tool embeds the widget intoan email message.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofengagement elements and the plurality of media assets can be removedfrom the interactive advertisement by the user and used in a differentlocation on the computer or on a different computer.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of media assets include one or morelocalized media assets, wherein the plurality of engagement elementsinclude a localization tool that detects an IP address used by thecomputer, traces the IP address to a zip code, further comprising thestep of selecting localized media assets corresponding to the zip codeto include in the invitation and the expanded message.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of media assets include one or moredynamic media assets, further comprising the step of selecting the oneor more dynamic media assets by selecting a dynamic content source toprovide the one or more dynamic media assets.
 17. The method of claim16, wherein the dynamic content source is a Really Simple Syndicationfeed.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein the dynamic content source isa live video feed.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein the dynamiccontent source is a blog.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein thedynamic content source is a software application.
 21. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of media assets include one or moredynamic media assets, wherein the dynamic media assets include one ormore localized media assets, wherein the plurality of engagementelements include a localization tool that detects an IP address used bythe computer, traces the IP address to a zip code, further comprisingthe step of selecting localized media assets that correspond to the zipcode from a dynamic content source.
 22. The method of claim 1, whereinthe step of collecting engagement information includes the steps of:measuring one or more activities by the user with the interactiveadvertisement; and compensating a publisher based on the one or moreactivities.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of compensatingthe publisher includes the step of generating a different level ofcompensation for the publisher based on whether the one or moreactivities are associated with the invitation, the expanded message orthe engagement warning.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein the step ofcompensating the publisher includes the step of generating a differentlevel of compensation for the publisher based on an amount of time spentby the user interacting with the interactive advertisement.